HomeMy WebLinkAboutallen-street_0029 AREA FORM NO.
FORM B - BUILDING
W 579
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
294 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MA 02108
an Lexington
_ cress 29 Allen Street
�j 3toric Name Allen-Swenson Farmhouse
-
�- Present residential
Original residential
T '
e c. 1750
Source stylistic analysis
SKETCH MAP
Show property's location in relation Style second Period vernacular
to nearest cross streets and/or
geographical features. Indicate Architect
all buildings between inventoried
property and nearest intersection. Exterior wall fabric clapboard
Indicate north.
Outbuildings shed
d
ro
Major alterations (with dates) ell to
ti the rear (c. 1850)
Moved Date
Approx. acreage 33973 ft.2
Recorded by Anne Grady, Nancy S. Seasholes Setting Adjacent to a portion of the
Organization Lexington Historical Commission original road to Waltham, now little used
Date April, 1984 and surrounded by land retaining rural
appearance.
(Staple additional sheets here)
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and
evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community.)
This is one of half-a-dozen Second Period Vernacular houses which survive
in Lexington. The setting of this house preserves something of its rural
character as well.
The original portion of the house is five bays wide and one room deep.
The house exhibits the roof profile and window placement and size similar to
those found in the other Second Period Vernacular houses in Lexington. Window
sash is a replacement of the original. Exterior finishes are plain. The
(see Continuation Sheet)
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (Explain the role owners played in local or state
history and how the building relates to the development of the community.)
- According to an antiquarian account, this house was first owned by
Joseph Smith (1743-1805) , a son of the Hezekian Smith who had originally owned
the farm at 56 Allen Street and a cousin of the Josiah Smith of the house now
at 26 Blossom Street and Abraham Smith, later of the house at 92 Blossomcrest
(see forms for these houses) . Joseph Smith's age and the date of his first
marriage (1765) suggest that this house may have been constructed somewhat
later than the c. 1750 proposed on the basis of stylistic analysis (see Archi-
tectural Significance section of this form) ; perhaps the house was built by an
earlier owner. In any case, Joseph Smith was very active in military and
political affairs: he was one of the Minute Men on the Lexington green on April
19, 1775, and participated in later Revolutionary campaigns; he was also a
selectman for four years between 1785 and 1793 and an assessor from 1796 to
1798 and in 1804. A later account described him as a masterful presiding
officer at political conventions (Smith 1891:116) .
After Joseph Smith's death in 1805, the farm was owned by his son Joseph
(1767-1813) , who in turn sold it to Marshall Wellington (1789-1866) , a brother
of "Captain David" Wellington of the Wellington homestead at 130 Pleasant
Street (see form) . In 1838 Wellington sold the farm to Galen Allen (1802-1864) ,
a selectman for three years from 1847 to 1851, and for many years the property
was known as the Allen farm. In 1876 the farm was owned by a G. Bullock,
presumably a relative of the Bullocks in the houses at 673 and 643 Waltham
(see Continuation Sheet)
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (name of publication, author, date and publisher)
Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington, revised and continued to
1912 by the Lexington Historical Society, Volume II, pp. 11, 638, 737.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913.
Smith, A. Bradford. "Kite End," 1891. Proceedings of the Lexington Historical
Society, Volume II, pp. 115-116. Lexington, Massachusetts: Lexington
Historical Society, 1900.
1876 map '
1889 map
1898 map
1906 map
1887 Directory
lobi - 7/82
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community: Form No:
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL CCt+fISSION Lexington 579
Office of the Secretary, Boston
Property Name: 29 Allen Street
Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
remains of panelled pilasters are present at the south entrance. The chimney
of the south (original) portion has been removed and changes made to the stairs.
However, mid-eighteenth century features remain in several of the rooms of this
part of the house. In the right hand downstairs room, there is a panelled
chimney breast with one very wide overmantel panel. An offset in the cornice
molding defines the chimney breast. The north wall of this room retains
horizontal feather-edged panelling (now covered with wallpaper) up to the level
of the chair rail. The summer beams in all the southernmost rooms examined
were unboxed and displayed a plain narrow chamfer. There is raised-field
panelling on the fireplace wall of the right hand chamber.
The foundation of the central chimney, which remains in the basement, is
two brick piers with timbers lain across the tops. There is brick nogging in
the north wall, and probably in the other walls of the original portion.
The ell addition appears to date from the mid-nineteenth century. A fine
cast-iron cook stove set in the chimney of the ell has a patent date of 1859.
Perhaps the addition was built shortly after that.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Street (see 673 Waltham Street form) , and by 1889 by David W. Richards, another
longer term owner. In 1906 the owner was Willard C. Schuyler; later in the
twentieth century the farm was acquired by the Swenson family and is still some-
times known as the Swenson farm.
Staple to Inventory form at bottom